Page 87 of Rebel Romeo

My footsteps slowed as we reached her door.

“Want to come inside?” she asked, fiddling with her keyring.

I looked up at her door, wanting with every ounce of my soul to say yes. To throw her over my shoulder caveman style and kick the door open like the sex-starved neanderthal I was.

Instead, I stood there passively, staring at the memo board hanging on her door. It no longer had any messages from Doug or Nate or Dave, thank God.

My hand around hers grew clammy at the thought. “I probably shouldn’t,” I said, immediately regretting this whole good guy act.

She released my hand, a mix of concern and confusion on her face. “Why not? Jill’s not home tonight.”

The muscles in my jaw tensed and I shoved my hands into my pockets, just so I could be sure to keep them off of Katherine’s body. “I just—wait, where’s Jill tonight?”

Katherine shrugged. “I’m not sure. She was all dressed up though. Might be another date with that poet she’s seeing.”

“Oh, right. The poet.”

“Yeah. Although she said multiple times to me that she thinks Duncan’s cute.” Katherine wiggled her eyebrows at me.

Dammit. That was what I was afraid of. But Duncan wouldn’t lie… at least, not to me. If he said they were just friends and there was nothing to worry about, then I had to believe him.

“So… about coming inside,” she said, stepping into me and placing her flat palms against my chest. “I was hoping we could hang out longer.”

I groaned, my head falling back toward the sky. “I thought we were going to take it slow.”

“Holden, this is slow. Glaciers are melting faster than our relationship is progressing.”

Relationship. My shoulders knotted at the sound of that word. But what did I expect? Girls like Katherine don’t date casually. I didn’t want her to. I wanted her all to myself. And that meant definitions like relationship and exclusive.

I forced my muscles to relax and hoped she didn’t notice the way I tensed beneath her palms. “Well, with the state of global warming right now, that’s actually pretty fast.”

“Is it me?” Katherine asks, her voice smaller than I’m used to hearing. “Did I, um, do it wrong the other night?”

“Do it wrong?” I repeated, incredulously. “You’re joking, right?”

With only the slightest lift of one shoulder, she gave me a shy shrug. “I don’t know. I just hear all the time about how horny college guys are. And yet last time, you stopped us. And tonight, we have my place all to ourselves?—”

Unable to stop myself, I scooped my hands into her hair, threading the strands tightly in my grip and pressed her against the door. She whimpered as my cock, already hard as a goddamn lead pipe, pushed into her hip.

I pulled back from the kiss, taking an extra moment to nibble on her plump bottom lip before I groaned her name. “Katherine.” My voice was a cross between a growl and a whisper as I leaned down, hovering just above her ear. “You turn me on so fucking much that I don’t know if I can trust myself inside your room with you. Alone. Stopping the other night, saying no tonight… it’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my fucking life.”

There was a hint of a smile on her face as she said, “Then stop saying no.”

It was a cruel move as I flicked out my tongue, gently tracing the shell of her ear. But then again, I played dirty.

Her body went taut in my arms before shuddering and melting against me. I increased the pressure as I licked her ear, exploring down her neck before finally coming back up to wrap my lips around her earlobe and sucking gently.

She cried out, her hips bucking hard against me, but I pinned her down, pressing her harder against the door as I grazed my teeth to the tender sensitive skin there.

“Please,” she whimpered.

“Please what?”

“Please stop saying no. Please stop going slowly on my behalf.”

I released her ear and kissed across her jaw until I was hovering over lips.

“Please come inside,” she whispered.

---